DeSantis ally discusses campaign strength amid layoffs
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00:00 When you're standing up to do the right thing some of the things you all have done in your legislature is what we've done in
00:05 Florida you are gonna face blowback. They're gonna sling arrows at you. They're gonna call you names. They're gonna lie about you
00:11 They're gonna smear us smear you and the question is are you gonna stand your ground? Are you gonna fold?
00:16 And welcome back to America decides that was governor Ron DeSantis earlier today speaking at the annual America
00:24 American Legislative Exchange Council meeting in Orlando this says his campaign has cut more than a third of its staff the total number of
00:32 38 people in what is being referred to as a campaign reset Ken Cuccinelli joins us now
00:38 He previously served in the Trump administration as acting DHS deputy secretary
00:43 And he founded the never back down super PAC which is supporting governor Ron DeSantis is
00:48 2024
00:50 Presidential bid good to see you. Thanks so much for being here. So governor DeSantis launched his campaign
00:55 Just two months ago and the campaign is already calling this a reset
00:59 Are you concerned about the campaign having to make this kind of course correction already?
01:05 No, I'm glad to see them slimming down I think that when you see it combined with the retail politics
01:13 They're putting on the schedule. They're doing a bus tour with us in the next few days in Iowa
01:19 And what we find is when the governor connects up with people in small groups or one at a time
01:25 You know a few dozen a few hundred
01:28 They warm up to him and his great record in Florida gets a personal aspect to it
01:33 They learn about him paying his way through college and being the only veteran running
01:37 those are important details that help people get to know him and
01:41 they put meat on the bones of his excellent record as governor and
01:46 We see that growing as a movement. We've knocked on over a million doors on his behalf now and
01:52 We're seeing the gradual pickup of support
01:56 Across all the areas where we're working and we're knocking on doors beyond the first four states
02:01 Yeah, I want to ask a little bit more about that bus tour in a moment
02:04 But what specific changes do you want to see from the candidate?
02:09 Well being at the super PAC we play follow the leader here a bit
02:14 I mean what I am happy to see the kind of retail politicking I described in the bus tour
02:20 I mean the super PAC set that up and then invited the candidate and they either accept or decline and
02:26 We like to see that sort of acceptance for those sorts of events
02:31 So that kind of grassroots focus is kind of where I come from in politics
02:36 I believe in changing hearts and minds one at a time
02:38 I believe it works and I believe that the governor has a great message of accomplishment
02:44 That matches a great national vision that conservatives are looking for right now. So I think it's a good combination
02:51 And when you look at the polling in early states
02:55 It seems like it's been pretty a pretty stagnant race with Donald Trump maintaining a lead
03:00 Can you give us kind of a timeline of when you would want to see?
03:04 tangible results or movement from DeSantis
03:10 Well, certainly as we get closer to the end of this year and and we're turning the corner on actual voting in the early
03:18 2024 is when we would be looking for that and that's what we're building toward
03:23 We you know between now and then there'll be debates of however many types. There'll be an awful lot of other
03:29 events like not just Alec today, but
03:32 Other other incidences comments on RFK jr. Today. I thought caught a lot of people's attention
03:39 It really plays up his kovat leadership
03:41 Where he's shined so spectacularly especially compared to most everybody else running
03:47 And you know those things come one at a time and we have six months to go the latest New Hampshire poll
03:54 Had him closing a third of the gap since April and that's in three months and there's six months to go on that pace
04:01 New Hampshire's a dead heat between DeSantis and Trump and everybody else is far behind
04:07 You know, that's not a terrible place to be
04:10 Obviously we want him to win it and we're gonna work very hard to help him win it
04:15 But this is gonna be a slow building process. I
04:19 Mean you mentioned his handling of Kovat
04:22 That's one area where he's attacked former president Donald Trump over but really on everything else
04:28 Especially on the legal woes that the former president is facing
04:32 We haven't really seen DeSantis or other candidates really go after Trump on that
04:38 I mean you would imagine that as a big vulnerability for the front-runner Donald Trump
04:43 Do you want to see Dick DeSantis go after Trump more forcefully and kind of change the trajectory of this race that way?
04:50 But where I think he's going after him on that subject is appointing people like Christopher Wray and then complaining about
04:58 Christopher Wray and complaining about the deep state when he appointed so many of the people to what he
05:04 Characterizes as the deep state and then DeSantis then turns that to his own vision
05:10 For how he's going to uproot the deep state and I think he has been more comprehensive about that than any other candidate running
05:18 You know Donald Trump just says I'll fix it in six months
05:21 Well, you had four years and you didn't and in fact you appointed many of the people you've been complaining about since you appointed them
05:28 So it really shines a light on one of Donald Trump's terrible weaknesses and that is his incredible
05:35 inconsistency in his own appointments
05:37 And you know, usually those are people who are entirely
05:41 Supportive of your your agenda and that's what we've seen in the Florida government with Governor DeSantis
05:48 We did not see that in the Trump administration when I was deputy secretary
05:53 I had to fight through the White House to try and accomplish the president's own agenda and
05:59 That's just not something that Governor DeSantis falls down on. Yeah, but we haven't really seen those attacks
06:05 Breaking through at this point. I mean, is this something that he needs to be more forceful and overt about?
06:11 I mean, it seems like a tricky balancing act given that
06:14 The former president has such a hold on the Republican Party base at this point
06:20 So how much to how aggressive to be in any direction is always a touchy question and for us at the super PAC
06:28 You know
06:29 We follow the lead of the candidate and the governor is
06:31 Dealt with for the largest media markets who've been very challenging to him for the last five years
06:36 He hasn't made any mistakes in that regard
06:38 I think that's good preparation for both debates and for dealing with the president directly if the president will ever engage directly so far
06:46 He's saying he won't come to the debates
06:47 But we'll see if that changes later and and I think the governor is going about this the right way where he's focusing his
06:55 criticism on policy differences like Kovac where President Trump has doubled down on all of the
07:02 Bad decisions he made in Kovac and on the many personnel
07:08 It isn't just Christopher Wray
07:09 We could go through a long list of mistakes by Donald Trump that were sort of known
07:15 By those of us on the Republican side be mistakes when he did them and he went ahead did it anyway
07:20 And then didn't remove them when they were a problem
07:23 So, you know, he talks a good game right now
07:26 But he didn't deliver this the good game that he talks about and governor DeSantis did do that
07:33 He walked the walk. He didn't just talk the talk and we'll see DeSantis and Trump in the same
07:39 Venue later this week in Iowa speaking of Iowa your pack is hosting DeSantis on a bus tour later this week
07:47 You know federal law prohibits super PACs like yours from coordinating with campaigns. So how exactly is this legal? Oh
07:55 So we we can set up events and then invite him to come they just can't have any input on what
08:05 Happens at the event for instance, you know, so we set up a bus tour proposed it to the campaign and they either say yes
08:12 Or no, and that's that's why it's legal. They don't have any control over the arrangements made
08:19 And so we say
08:21 Right into that gray line. Oh, that's not stretching it at all
08:26 No, if it were we're not getting near any gray lines
08:30 The the ground we're trotting is well trod
08:34 We're doing what others before us have done and the FEC has dealt with all these issues
08:38 We're not we're not playing fast and loose at all. We're being very tight to stay inside the lines
08:44 All right, Ken Cuccinelli. We will be watching DeSantis on that bus tour later this week on the ground in Iowa
08:51 Thank you so much for your time and being with us. Appreciate it
08:55 We're gonna talk now with CBS News political reporter Aaron Navarro joining us now. And of course, he has been covering
09:01 Everything DeSantis campaign for us here
09:05 I know you've been following him for a while before he even announced and I know
09:08 You know, there's been a lot of talk about what this
09:11 Shake up reset firing of staff means for the campaign
09:15 I know you've been talking to donors too
09:18 And that's often when we start to get some insights about how they're feeling about candidates that they're supporting
09:24 What have you been hearing in terms of how they view this reset?
09:28 Right and it's interesting because they're also hearing from the top campaign brass that may not be talking to the press directly
09:34 But there was a retreat of these donors
09:36 Bundlers in Park City, Utah and the overall message I got from that was the campaign and DeSantis
09:42 Acknowledged that there needs to be a change that there needs to be kind of a pivot or reset
09:46 They talked about him, you know, quote-unquote meaner leaner campaign talked about right sizing
09:51 So not explicitly talking about the staff cuts but alluding to it and also making sure that they are focused on the first four
09:58 Presidential primary states it was interesting hearing Cuccinelli talk about how the pack is focused on Super Tuesday
10:04 On a lot of that ground work and they obviously have a lot of funds to be able to do that
10:09 But when you look at the DeSantis campaign and him they said they think that all funds all attention needs to be paid
10:15 The Iowa New Hampshire, so we expect to Santa's to be spending a lot more time in Iowa
10:21 I mean you heard
10:22 Cuccinelli also say that they and we've heard this too from supporters of DeSantis that they want him to kind of be meeting voters
10:28 One-on-one and kind of focusing there. He's heading to Iowa
10:32 Later this week. He'll be there with a lot of other candidates
10:36 I'm curious kind of you know, and I asked Cuccinelli this but I'm curious from what you've been hearing from donors about what kind of
10:42 timeline they want to see some kind of
10:45 Movement here. I mean are they putting an emphasis on that debate, which is I think just exactly a month from now
10:51 That's right
10:52 And that was kind of the message from the top brass in the campaign as well
10:54 Is that this next debate will be a big point?
10:57 For the Santas and just the race in general and you look at the big question on whether Trump goes or not
11:03 From talking to donors that were at this retreat. It seems that the Santas his campaign are preparing for both scenarios
11:08 They're also preparing for whether the candidates
11:12 That are on stage that aren't named Donald Trump are gonna go after the Santas and they're expecting, you know from Chris Christie
11:18 Maybe Tim Scott, but one other message I got was
11:21 The campaign wants to make it clear and portray the confidence that this is a two-man race
11:26 They're saying they kind of warn some of the donors. Listen, you might see a moment here or there from Nikki Haley
11:31 But big Rama Swami it won't last
11:33 The Santas has the funds kind of the profile to that they think can last longer in this race
11:40 So that's really interesting because he came into this race kind of positioning himself as the clear alternative
11:46 But you know when you spend some time in Iowa and we've been talking to voters
11:49 You know, you do sense and kind of an openness or eagerness to hear from a lot of different candidates
11:55 I'm curious, you know how the super PAC is, you know building that kind of ground effort
12:02 That is so key in a place like Iowa. So even you know as the campaign is kind of suffering with
12:09 Spending and money issues. The super PAC is super well funded
12:14 Yeah, and they and they've been hosting a couple events in Iowa and New Hampshire
12:17 I went to the July 4 parade which is super PAC was put on by them and it's it's making sure that the door canvassing
12:23 Operation so the moments where the Santas is not there
12:26 But his message is still being spread out is something that super PAC has been handling which is a bit unprecedented
12:32 A hundred million dollar is going into voter mobilization and that's kind of been the big focus so far in Iowa, New Hampshire
12:39 But also in big delegate states like, California, they have staff building up there
12:43 So it's interesting to see the difference in the super PAC funds versus a campaign that may be spent a bit more than it should
12:50 Yeah, and you bring up a really important point
12:51 Which is this is all about delegates how much you can amass and that's been a key focus of the Trump campaign
12:57 Having been through this before. I also want to ask you just really quickly about
13:02 RFK jr. Has been mentioned you heard Cuccinelli talk about that. What did DeSantis say about him?
13:09 It's interesting. He keeps getting asked would you make RFK jr. Your vice president?
13:13 You know you're under you're running mate on the ticket and the Santas and him do have overlap on some of the kovat skepticism
13:19 RFK jr. Obviously has spread and talked about some conspiracy theories on that are a bit way out there
13:26 But the Santas today said, you know
13:28 After being pressed a bit on whether he would make him a VP that he would appoint him to lead the CDC or FDA
13:34 Which had many conservatives kind of eyes pop just given RFK jr. His background
13:40 Yeah, given those very very controversial claims. Well, Aaron Navarro
13:44 I know you've been covering all things to Santas and will continue to so we should all follow you and your reporting
13:49 Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it